Introspection and Metacognition:
Mechanisms of self-knowledge
Stanislas Dehaene
Chair of Experimental Cognitive Psychology
Lecture
Definitions and first paradoxes
Course translated from the French version by CG Traduction et Interprétation
Can we conceptualize that we are
aware of….. being aware?
γνῶθι σεαυτόν : Know thyself
Inscription in the pronaos of Apollo’s Temple
in Delphi
“I continually escape and I do not quite understand, when watching myself
act, that the person I see acting is the same as the person watching, and who
wonders and doubts he can be actor and watcher all at once.
André Gide, The Counterfeiters
“Being aware of being aware of being… In other words, if I not only know
that I am, but also know that I know it, then I belong to the human species.
All the rest follows—the glory of thought, poetry, a vision of the universe.
In that respect, the gap between ape and man is immeasurably greater than
the one between amoeba and ape.
Vladimir Nabokov, Strong Opinions
What brain architecture allows us to turn our thoughts onto themselves in
this way?
Some simple examples
• Serial strategies
– Calculate 13+28. In what order did you make your calculations?
– Have you detected any error? Did you need to go back?
– Strategies and action plans are often accessible to our conscious mind
whereas elemental operations are not.
• « Tip-of-the-tongue » experience
– How do you call a prodigious being, half-man, half-horse?
– We might not remember the answer, while being aware that we know
it!
• Learning monitoring and metamemory
– How do you decide to revise before an exam?
– Have you already danced with a famous actress?
Some elements of definition
• Cognition: Set of mental processes involved in (internal or
external) information processing.
• Metacognition: Set of knowledge and beliefs concerning our own
(passed, present or future) cognitive processes; processes used to
manipulate them.
– Metamemory: our knowledge and beliefs on memorization processes and
memory retrieval
• Introspection: (literally: « in-sight »)
Ability to consciously access our mental operations and attribute
them to ourselves or to someone else.
– Knowing we understood a theorem
– Estimating we are close to the solution
• (Meta)cognitive Control: Ability to regulate our own mental
processes according to our introspection
– Change strategies
– Be more careful
Emergence of a theoretical framework
Nelson, T.O. & Narens, L. (1990). Metamemory: A theoretical framework and some new findings.
In G.H. Bower (Ed). The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 26, 125-173. New York: Academic Press
Metarepresentation
Level 1
Internal model
Introspection or
« metacognitive
monitoring »
Metacognitive
control
Mental operation or
Level 1
representation
In 19th century psychology introspection is
central
• Until the 19th century, introspection was considered as the central method for studying human
mind, a form of direct observation of mental « facts ».
• Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920, Leipzig): the very purpose of psychology is to study subjective
mental experiences, which can only be studied by introspection.
Franz Brentano (1838-1917) promoted ‘descriptive psychology’ or ‘phenomenology’ (before
Husserl) consisting in the study of internal perceptions, from the « first person » perspective ».
• Oswald Külpe (1862-1915), Wundt’s student and leader of the Würzburg School, developed
methods of verbal description of introspection (for instance, describe what comes to your mind
when you read the word « meter ») – but discovered the “imageless thoughts” : the subject is not
always able to report relevant percepts.
•Edward Titchener (1827-1927, Cornell), Wundt’s student, claims that introspection is
psychology’s only method.
Edwin Boring (1886-1968, Harvard): « If the subject matter is immediate experience, it is plain
that the method is immediate experiencing » (A History of Experimental Psychology, 1929)
• In France, Théodule Ribot (1839-1916) and Alfred Binet (1857-1911) defend similar viewpoints:
« introspection, one may say, is the basis of psychology, it characterizes psychology so precisely
that any study by introspection deserves to be called a psychological study, and any study made by
another method belongs to another science » (A. Binet, Introduction to experimental psychology,
1894)
•For Jérôme Sackur, introspection never disappeared from psychology methods.
Comte’s paradox
« It is tangible indeed, that by an invincible necessity, human mind can directly observe
any phenomenon, except its own. Because who would make the observation? (…) The
thinking individual couldn’t divide into two, one reasoning, the other watching the
reasoning. The observed organ and the observing organ being identical in this case, how
could the observation be made? This so-called psychological method is therefore totally
worthless in its very principle. »
Auguste Comte, Lecture on Positive Philosophy (1830-1842), Vol. 1, pp. 31-32
« It could have come to Mr. Comte’s mind that it is possible to examine a fact through
memory, not at the moment of its perception, but in the following moment: this is actually
the method by which, in general, the best of our science concerning our intellectual acts
was acquired. We think about what we have done once the act is over, but with the
impression still vivid in our memory.
This simple fact shoots down Mr. Comte’s entire argument. »
John Stuart Mill, Auguste Comte and Positivism (1865), pp. 68-69.
Contemporary disproof
of Comte’s paradox
Our mental processes are made up of many partially specialized processors, so it can’t be
ruled out that some of them might be “observing” others.
The prefrontal cortex, in particular, is in a position to receive information from all our
other mental processes :
« A good way to begin to consider the overall behavior of the cerebral cortex is to imagine
that the front of the brain is ‘looking at’ the sensory systems. »
Crick & Koch, Nature Neuroscience, 2003
However, Comte’s observation points to two interesting and open questions :
- Does the very fact of asking the participant to perform introspection affect the initial
processing of the information?
- It is probably possible to use Comte’s paradox to demonstrate that perfect and complete
introspection is impossible (Data, the android from Star Trek, who is supposed to have a
perfect memory and perfect access to the motives of all its decisions).
Behaviorist criticism
« Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective discipline of natural
sciences. Its theoretical goal is to predict and control behavior. Introspection is not part
of its essential methods, and the scientific value of its data does not depend on whether
they can be interpreted in terms of awareness. »
John Watson (1913), Psychology as the behaviorist views it
Main criticism: subjectivity of observations.
« The consequence of the major postulate that something such as consciousness does
exist, and that we are able to analyze it through introspection, is that there are as many
analysis as there are psychologists. »
John Watson (1925), Behaviorism
Some answers to Watson :
- His criticism mistakes introspection as a method for accessing mental architecture for
introspection as a research subject.
- Introspection (as well as its limitations) is a perfectly legitimate research subject
which leads to empirical results that can be reproduced from one individual to another.
Metacognition and cognitive sciences program
John Flavell introduces the study of metamemory (1971), and the distinction
between monitoring and regulation (1976).
In 1979, he suggests a first theorization for metacognition, which identifies :
-metacognitive knowledge (conscious or not, right or wrong)
-conscious experiences
-goals and tasks
-strategies and actions.
Influenced by Piaget, he underlines the importance of metacognition in child
education (active research strategies and information memorization).
1960-1990: Heated debate and active research on the reliability of introspection :
- For Nisbett and Wilson (1977), introspective judgments are very often fictitious.
Example: preference for the right hand side when choosing among 4 equivalent
objects
- For Ericsson and Simon (1980), verbal reporting is appropriate and useful if the
reported information is still present in the short term memory
General theory on verbal reporting
Ericsson, K. A., & Simon, H. A. (1980). Verbal reports as data. Psychological Review, 87(3), 215-251.
Ericsson and Simon introduced a classification of introspective tasks distinguishing the time of
verbalization (immediate or delayed), from the type of verbalization procedure (direct, unclear or no
relation).
Their review of experimental data suggests that a verbal report is reliable when it is direct and
describes the current content of short term memory.
Under such circumstances, what subjects say and what they do can be remarkably consistent (for
instance, in one card sorting test [Dulany and O’Connell, 1963], 11 answers at variance with
verbalization out of 34408 = 0.03 %).
Metacognition and cognitive sciences program
Major experimental breakthrough in 1960-2000: invention of new experimental
measurements for introspection :
• Metamemory tasks :
- judgment of learning: after a learning phase, the individual is asked what
his performance will be in the subsequent memory test.
-feeling of knowing: immediately after failing to remember an item, the
individual is asked to judge prospectively whether he could recognize it
among several others.
• ‘Secondary’ Judgments :
- confidence: digital judgment of confidence in a primary answer
- wagering: wager on the accuracy of one’s answer
- Error-detection
• As Jérôme Sackur points out, psychophysics itself, on a regular basis, use
carefully quantified and replicated introspection (with verbal or non-verbal
report).
Historically important example: Sperling’s experiment(1960).
Sperling’s iconic memory experiment
Sperling, G. (1960). The information available in brief visual presentation. Psychological Monographs, 74, 1-29.
Q
T
A
W
Z
F
B
D
V
M
I
K
number of
letters
reported
variation of interval
display – cue
cued
partial
report
whole report
Number of letters in stimulus
•After being briefly shown an array of letters (50 ms), we are only able to report ~4.
• Nevertheless, if an auditory cue follows the offset of the display and indicates what row should be reported,
we are able to report most characters
• This ability was found to decay rapidly with the time between the offset of the display and the sounding of
the auditory cue.
• This experiment is important for several reasons: discovery of an iconic memory which decays
exponentially; ability to direct attention to a representation stored in memory; last but not least, invention of
a partial report method validating and surpassing introspection :
« when complex stimuli composed of many alphanumeric characters are displayed with a tachistoscope,
subjects enigmatically insist that they saw more than they can remember in retrospect, i.e. report in retrospect
»(Sperling, 1960).
« Sperling operationalized a form of introspection expressed by verbal reports of dissatisfaction or fleeting
impressions. »(Sackur, 2009).
Psychophysics substantiates rough introspection, but can also qualify it (see course 2010).
Limitations of introspection
An essential idea is now well-accepted: the introspective ability should be studied for itself, without
assuming it is necessarily accurate, but simply as a mental operation the mechanisms and limitations
of which remain to be elucidated.
Meta-knowledge can be classified according to its degree of accuracy :
Level 2
Meta-knowledge:
Level 1
Knowledge:
Present
and accurate
Absent
or inaccurate
Present
and accurate
Absent
or inaccurate
Knowing that I know:
Not knowing that I know:
- reliance on our answers
- knowledge of our strategies
- subliminal operations
- grammar of mother tongue
Knowing that I don’t
know:
Not knowing that I don’t
know, or thinking I know:
- False memories
- Fictitious justifications of
our behavior
- awareness of our errors
- awareness of our oversights
- judgments of learning
Example of mental fiction:
The explanation of our choices
Johansson, P., Hall, L., Sikstrom, S., & Olsson, A. (2005).
Failure to detect mismatches between intention and outcome in a simple decision task. Science, 310(5745), 116-119.
A new phenomenon: choice
blindness
Phase 1. The participant chooses
the most attractive face to him
(between face pairs chosen on the
basis of their similar attractiveness)
Phase 2. The participant receives
his card and explains the reasons
for his choice.
In 20% of tests, cards are covertly
manipulated.
74% of manipulations are not
noticed, neither immediately or in
retrospect.
The participant then starts giving “explanations” for a choice he did not make! These explanations are
given with the same level of detail, the same confidence and the same emotional tonality.
Explanations vary from pure
confabulation (a feature
present in the outcome but
which couldn’t have been
used in the choice phase) to
accurate introspection (but
inappropriate for the
outcome presented)
Johansson, P., Hall, L., Sikstrom, S., & Olsson, A. (2005). Failure to detect mismatches between intention and outcome in a simple
decision task. Science, 310(5745), 116-119.
Another example: « unskilled and unaware of it »
Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one's own
incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. J Pers Soc Psychol, 77(6), 1121-1134.
In a range of very different tests
(humor evaluation, logical
reasoning, grammar…),
participants with the poorest
performance misjudge their
incompetence.
Paradoxically, training improves
cognitive and metacognitive
performances, which helps
subjects to recognize their
incompetence.
Darwin (1871, The Descent of
Man): « Ignorance more
frequently begets confidence than
does knowledge »
An attempt to metacognition modeling by neural
networks
Cleeremans, A., Timmermans, B., & Pasquali, A. (2007).
Consciousness and metarepresentation: a computational sketch. Neural Netw, 20(9), 1032-1039.
• A first-order network learns to
categorize images.
• A higher-order network observes
the states of the first-order network
and learns to predict errors.
• For a transitory period, first-order
performances improve while
second-order performances
deteriorate.
higher-order performance
• This network and its variations
(Pasquali and al, Cognition, 2010)
can capture part of Persaud et al.
data (2007) according to which
metacognitive wagering comes
behind first-order performance.
first-order performance
Central issues in the field of metacognition
• Are metacognitive judgments always true?
– When do we have authentic introspective access to our mental state?
– When do we build mental fictions?
– Why are we unaware that these representations are fictitious?
• What is the format of our self-knowledge?
– Is there such a thing as a special register of self-knowledge, or do we use the same
processes to encode « one-self as another »?
– Is metacognitive knowledge necessarily conscious?
• What mental and brain architecture underlies metacognitive judgments?
– What cues are used for these judgments?
– Can metacognitive decision-making be modelled as some sort of perceptive
decision, but based on higher level cues?
– What are the brain areas concerned?
– Is the architecture of metacognition specific to human species?
• What are the practical implications of these researches?
– in particular in the field of education (knowing what I don’t know)
Syllabus
• Tuesday 4th, January. Definitions and first paradoxes
• Tuesday 11th, January. Is our introspection ability an illusion?
• Tuesday 18th, January. Links between awareness and
metacognition
• Tuesday 25th, January. Links between metacognition and
theory of mind
• Tuesday 1st, February. Experimental models of introspection
in animals.
• Tuesday 8th, February. Brain mechanisms
Seminar:
Mental fiction psychology and neuropsychology
Shedding light on how introspection can be at variance with reality,
particularly among patients suffering from brain damage.
• January 4: Lionel Naccache (Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, Paris) :
Interpretations and Beliefs Neuropsychology
• January 11: Olaf Blanke (Federal Polytechnical School of Lausanne): How
the brain computes the self’s point of view
• January 18: Paul Fletcher (University of Cambridge, UK): Misperceiving
and misbelieving: towards an understanding of psychosis
• January 25: Gilles Fénelon (Hôpital Henri Mondor, Créteil):
hallucinations, illusions and presence sensing during Parkinson’s disease
• February 1: Henrik Ehrsson (Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm): The
construction of an experience of our own body
• February 8: Predrag Petrovic (Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm):
• Expectations, beliefs, and the origins of the placebo effect
Some books and journal articles reviewed
Books:
• Dunlosky, J., & Metcalfe, J. (2008). Metacognition. Sage Publications, Inc.
• Kahneman D, Slovic P, Tversky A (1982) Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases.
Cambridge University Press.
• Vickers, D. (1979). Decision processes in visual perception. London: Academic Press.
• Wegner, D. M. (2003). The illusion of conscious will. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Articles:
• Ericsson, K. A., & Simon, H. A. (1980). Verbal reports as data. Psychological Review, 87(3), 215-251.
• Harvey, N. (1997). Confidence in judgment. Trends Cogn Sci, 1(2), 78-82.
• Nelson, T. O. (1996). Consciousness and metacognition. American Psychologist, 51, 102-116.
• Nisbett, Richard, & Wilson, Timothy. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on
mental processes. Psychological Review, 84, 231-259.
• Sackur, J. (2009), L'Introspection en psychologie expérimentale, Revue d'Histoire des Sciences, 62, 2,
5-28
• Smith, J. D., Beran, M. J., Couchman, J. J., & Coutinho, M. V. (2008). The comparative study of
metacognition: sharper paradigms, safer inferences. Psychon Bull Rev, 15(4), 679-691.
• Smith, J. D. (2009). The study of animal metacognition. Trends Cogn Sci, 13(9), 389-396.
• Terrace, H. S., & Son, L. K. (2009). Comparative metacognition. Curr Opin Neurobiol, 19(1), 67-74.